Chasing Fears
by tahdahreads
Summary: When Jess accidentally sees Paranormal Activity 3 with Cece, Nick is more than willing to help her chase her fears away for the night. With tequila. Takes place after season finale! One-shot!


**Disclaimer: I don't own any part of New Girl**

* * *

Jess stumbled into the apartment. Her face was beet red, her eyes wary and suspicious. It didn't take the boys long to notice something was wrong. She had practically sprinted past them into her bedroom. She had gone out on a girl's night with Cece - did Cece say something? Did she leave Jess to go off with some dude again? Nick peaked over the couch as Jess bolted through her bedroom door.

"What was that about?" Nick asked, turning to Winston and Shelby at the kitchen counter.

"What was what?" Winston replied, clearly clueless about the state of his female roommate. To be honest, Nick wasn't even sure if Winston even knew Jess had come in. He was fondling Shelby's hair and "peering into her beautiful eyes" and Nick could've gagged at the thought of it.

"Is Jess back?" Schmidt slammed open his bedroom door. "Is she back yet? Because she borrowed my key lime bath salts and I seriously -"

"Yes, Schmidt, but she's - " Nick started, hoping to finish his sentence before Schmidt raced over to Jess's door and yanked it open.

Jess, of course, not exactly expecting a half-clothed and soaked Schmidt to come barging into her room, immediately screamed at the top of her lungs at the sight of her door opening. The shriek soaked the entire apartment - even Winston and Shelby looked up from their love-drunk stupor. Nick's eyes bulged as a very shocked version of his turtle face came out and he walked hesitantly to Jess's room to seek the source of her horrified yell.

"Holy god, Jess - what are you screaming about?" Schmidt groaned.

Jess had shoved herself with her heels to the back of her bed's headboard and had pulled her covers up to her chin. She was still wearing her girl's night out outfit underneath her blankets, which couldn't have been comfortable considering she had spent an hour an a half picking out her complicated romper before she left.

"I - oh jeez, Schmidt, I'm sorry! I just got a little - freaked out. I'm sorry. Do you - do you need something?"

Schmidt sighed, "I'll ignore your use of my toiletries for the time being. Are you okay? You're shaking like a leaf and you're as pale as - well, I mean, you're typically very fair, Jess, but -"

Nick pushed past Schmidt. "Jess, what the hell was that scream?"

"I'm sorry!" Jess defended herself, throwing her sheets to her side and climbing out of the bed. "I didn't think I was going to be so freaked out after the movie. I told Cece it wasn't a good idea."

"What movie?" Nick asked. "Weren't you guys just going to do manicures or your hair or something? And eating out?"

"Please, Nick, nail salons aren't open this late. You're an animal," Schmidt shot. "What happened?"

Jess huffed and crossed her arms. She wasn't subtle about looking around her. Her eyes were darting all over the room in a defensive suspicion Nick hadn't really seen before. She was clearly still shaken.

"Cece wanted to go see a movie, and I was like 'Yay!' but then I realized I really didn't have enough money for a movie-movie considering I got the tiramisu after dinner, which was amazing by the way, but... So we went to the dollar theater over on Hull street - you know, the one with the cockroach problem?"

Nick and Schmidt both groaned.

"I mean, Cece wasn't really down for it, but I told her she'd get to pick the movie if we went there because all the movies at the regular theater were in 3D and I knew that for an adult night showing all the ticket prices would be like 15 dollars, which I totally didn't have - "

"What movie did she pick, Jess?" Nick looked at her amusedly. As sorry as he felt for her being so shaken, he couldn't deny how entertaining she was, bouncing between topics and speaking at a mile a minute.

Jess looked at her feet and slowly craned her eyes back to the boys in front of her. "Paranormal Activity 3," Jess squeaked out.

Both boys groaned again.

"Jess, why would you do that to yourself? Last time you watched an episode of SVU you spent three days talking about putting padlocks on the windows!"

"I didn't think it would be that bad! I thought it was about ghosts! Casper was a ghost, and he was great!"

Schmidt shook his head, "Jess, you should know that ghosts and demons are _very_ different beings - you're a teacher for God's sake!"

Nick turned to Schmidt and gave him a look. "Seriously, Schmidt? Really?"

Jess moaned in self-pity. "Guys, I cannot be alone tonight."

The three of them heard the front door slam. Apparently Winston and Shelby felt differently and alone time is exactly what they wanted.

"Well, I guess _they're_ gone," Nick said loudly, clearly annoyed. "Well, it's fine, Jess. Schmidt and I are here tonight - "

Schmidt let out a small hiss. "Ahhh, I'm really really sorry, Jess, I'd totally love to be here for you right now, but - "

Nick shot a look at Schmidt, "You're not still trying to get with your boss again, are you?"

"I mean, I'm single, she's single -"

"Gross, Schmidt," Jess groaned, burying her face in between her pillows.

Nick looked at his surroundings - Jess's room still smelled like the multiple types of body spray she had tried on before she left. All somewhat fruity.

"It's fine, Jess, I'm staying here. I have no where else to be," Nick said almost glumly as he watched her curl up into a ball on her bed.

"Thank you," she mumbled. The boys could barely hear her with her voice so muffled by her bed sheets.

Schmidt looked over at the bath salts Jess had borrowed on a dresser across the room, then back at his frazzled roommate. He gave her a soft smile before darting out of the room to continue getting ready.

This left Nick and Jess.

Jess knew how pathetic she looked. She hated coming off this way in front of Nick - confident, cocky Nick. She hated giving him just another reason on top of the long list of reasons to laugh at her. She had come into the loft with a plan - she'd go straight to her room, get in her pajamas and sleep and hopefully the thoughts of the movie could rest until daytime. You know, daytime, where nothing bad can ever happen. The only exception was that plenty of horrible things happened to those kids in the movie during the daytime and... Jess shuddered.

She poked her face out of her sheets and looked at Nick. Nick gave her a small smile. She was so damn cute sometimes.

"Jess?" He asked.

Jess bit her lip roughly and crawled back under her duvet. "I know you're laughing at me, Nick! Just laugh quietly, okay?"

Nick begged himself not to laugh. He knew she thought he was laughing _at_ her, and as much as he didn't want to hurt her, he'd rather her continue thinking that. He'd really rather not know he was just laughing at the way her exposed toes curled up every time something made a noise and the way her face blushed just enough to notice. Nick rolled his eyes at himself. He didn't know how she did it - he didn't want to know, in fact - but she made his insides churn and he couldn't decipher whether he wanted to take her back to his bed or give her a damn noogie half the time.

"Jess?" he said softly. He walked over to the corner of her bed and sat next to where her legs curled up. The second his weight hit the bed, she jumped up like an electric shock and stared straight at him with her arms clasped tightly around herself.

Nick tried to stifle his laughter, but he really couldn't help it. He slapped a hand over his mouth.

"What? What is it?" Jess asked gently.

Nick looked at his feet, grinning like a maniac. Half of Jess's ponytail had come out during her frantic period under her covers and the mascara on the left side of her face had smeared underneath. She had clearly been trying not to cry and the strain made her blue eyes pop out brighter than he had ever seen them. His eyes darted all around her face, taking it all in. How could she be so adorable and so absolutely torn apart at the same time?

Nick watched Jess sink her face in her hands and let out a large groan. He didn't think she realized that one of the sleeves of her romper had come down and exposed her skin and much of the left cup of her bra. Purple? Nick wondered if all of her undergarments were colored. She didn't seem like the type to go for boring, nude underwear, he admitted.

He let his eyes roam down to her waist. The outfit stopped short at her thighs and the backs were shoved very far up her legs. Nick could feel his breath getting heavy as he tried not to stare at the skin below her hip exposed by those tantalizing shorts.

Nick coughed to snap himself out of it. "Ah. Jess?"

"What?" she mumbled defensively. She knew he was laughing at her and she hated herself for letting it get to this point. As if he wasn't laughing at her already for screaming, she knew she looked a mess and she couldn't stand it.

"Would you like a drink?"

The poor girl paused. She let her arms fall to her sides and looked at Nick genuinely, her eyebrows raised.

"Really?"

"We have plenty of stuff here, Jess, and it seems like it would help you calm down a little bit. Can I make you something? Can I get you a beer?"

"What could you make me?"

"Ahh, hmm. Let's see," Nick said, wandering over to the kitchen. Jess followed close behind, darting glances over her shoulders.

He ended up mixing her something with Schmidt's cranberry juice and what she thought might have been tequila - she didn't bother watching him mix the drink. She couldn't taste the alcohol either, which she knew meant trouble, but she didn't really care. After a few large gulps, she already felt herself hotter and more relaxed.

Jess bounced over to the couch, clearly much less careful about her actions now that she felt safe. Liquid courage really does fulfill it's name, she thought. Nick grinned at her.

"So what do you want to do?" Jess asked.

Nick smiled hesitantly and scratched the back of his neck, "Honestly, Jess, I'm kind of exhausted, and -"

"What?" Jess almost leapt up off the couch. "No. Nick, no. You cannot go to bed. Seriously, I cannot be alone right now."

"You're not alone! I'll be right there in the other room asleep!"

"Nick! If you had seen _one_ of those movies you would know it is _so _not a problem when one character is asleep!"

Nick huffed.

"Please, Nick?" Jess said softly. Nick looked her up and down and couldn't help himself. God damn, he wanted to throw her over his shoulder and have his way with her. He wanted to do so many things to her. He wanted to ravish her. Her hair had come completely undone and fallen around her shoulders and her huge blue eyes stared right into him. She knew what she was doing to him. She had to know.

No person could possibly be this persuasive with two words without realizing it.

"Yeah, I'll stay. What do you want to do, Jess?" He growled, marching to the fridge to get a beer.

Jess finished her drink in a heartbeat and leapt over to him. "Make me another?"

"Another drink? Well damn, Jessica Day," he laughed looking at her. She had sauntered over close to his side.

"Yes please, Nicholas."

Nick took her glass and did as she told him. Jess watched him turn around and face the counter. If he was going to laugh at her, she'd rather be a little drunk while he did it. And to be honest, she'd rather him be a little drunk as well. Maybe that way, he wouldn't notice her staring at him. She watched his hands as he mixed her a drink and bit her lip, feeling her breath got hot.

He had to know what he was doing. No one could possibly do something as simple as mixing a drink and make her sweat without realizing it.

Jess felt her breath catch in her throat and her eyes darted immediately to her feet as Nick turned around to her with her new drink. Nick grinned as she took it and pulled a beer out of the fridge as she did so.

"Just a beer, Mr. Miller?" Jess said, finally bringing her eyes back to his.

Nick paused, a sly grin forming on his lips. "What would you rather me have?"

"Well, I mean, if we're mixing each other drinks..." she drifted off. She was starting to really feel the bubbles from the last drink growing in her stomach and the terror from the movie leave out the back of her mind.

Jess climbed up onto the counter, sitting next to the stove and reached behind her for one of Nick's small square glasses and the fifth of Maker's Mark.

"Um - Jess - I think that's Winston's - "

"Yeah," Jess drawled, "I think we can pay him back though."

Nick laughed and took the glass from her. She looked down at him from her perch on the counter and smiled, her pinkish drink drawn up to her lips.

"Oh come on, now, you're not tipsy yet, are you Miss Day?" Nick teased. He could start to have fun with her now. "You're not getting tired, are you?"

"What?" Jess shot at him. "Heck no! No way, Jose!"

"Got it," Nick said, laughing.

Jess leapt off the counter, part of her mostly-full drink splashing out onto Nick, but he didn't mind. He downed his drink to catch up with her. He didn't think he'd be able to stand it if he didn't.

Jess ran over to the couch and set her drink down carefully before throwing herself backwards onto the cushions.

"Nick!" she called to him. "Let's watch a movie!"

"Yeah? Do you want to watch Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, Jess?" he teased.

"Don't be a jerk," she pouted playfully. "Can we watch Dirty Dancing, Nick?"

"No," he said plainly.

"Can we watch 13 Going on 30?"

"Not happening."

"Can we watch Labyrinth?"

"The David Bowie movie? Do we even have that?"

"Can we play True American?"

Nick paused. "Now there's an idea."

* * *

Jess hadn't been this drunk since college. At a certain point, she didn't even think she'd been that drunk _in_ college - she was never really a partier. She and Nick had _severely_ underestimated the amount they'd have to drink with only two people playing True American. She also definitely didn't realize that they'd have to change the vast majority of the rules. It's very difficult to play a majority-rules American government based drinking game with only two people.

At another point, Nick wasn't sure if Jess even remembered going to see the movie anymore. Although he was proven wrong when he told her that her punishment for mixing up the Roosevelts was standing in a dark room for 15 minutes and her reaction was screaming as loud as she possibly could.

Nick clapped his hand over her mouth and laughed for a solid 10 minutes before the two of them decided they might as well stop playing. Neither of them lost per se, but neither of them really won either.

Nick looked at Jess on the couch; she was panting from having been chased around the room in their last lap of the game and her bangs were pushed aside, dampened with heat.

Nick's chest tightened up. God, he wanted her.

Jess looked up at Nick. Was he staring at her body? What was he looking at her like that for?

"Nick?" she asked. Nick's eyes shot up and he face flooded with color.

"What?" he asked.

"Do you want to play a drinking game?" she asked him carefully.

Nick let out a barking laugh, "Seriously, Jess? I don't exactly think that's what we need night row - right now..." he scrunched his nose at his own word mix-up. He needed to go to sleep before he said something stupid.

Jess considered her next words carefully. She wanted him. She was drunk enough that she knew what she wanted for sure and without the confusion of friendships or roommate bonding. She knew what she wanted and he was it. She looked at Nick, breathless and exhausted laying next to her on the sofa.

"Nick, take off your shirt."

Nick's eyelids shot open. "Excuse me, Jess?"

"Take it off," she ordered.

"I - I'm sorry?" he stumbled out, sitting up on the couch to face her.

Jess scrunched her nose up. "Nick."

"Jess?" he asked.

"Do it!" she ordered, a smile threatening to poke through the corners of her mouth. She crawled over to him on her knees on the couch, facing him and refusing to break eye contact.

Nick busted into laughter. "Jess, what has gotten into you?" He could feel the heat of his drinks all over himself and didn't know whether to laugh at her anymore or laugh at his own drunken self. Was this even happening? What exactly did she want with him? Was she going to hit him?

"You!" she yelled at him, starting to grow irritated. She had had way to much and it had already hit her half an hour ago. Now was the time for her to close the deal and she was _not_ going to sleep in that damn bed alone.

Wait - what was she saying? Oh god, she was way drunker than she needed to be.

"I - I- that's not what I meant," Jess fumbled out.

"I've gotten into you?" Nick teased. Jess tried not to smile. She tried to remain stoic and dominant - although if her history of intoxication has proven anything to her, that probably wasn't the case.

"You - no - just - "

Nick sat up onto his knees on the couch, matching her position right in front of her. "And what are you going to do about it if I don't, Jess?"

Jess felt his hot breath going down onto her chest.

"I'm going - to...I'm..." she cut herself off.

Nick laughed at her. Jess huffed.

No.

She was not letting him win this time. He was not going to laugh at her this time. She found his drunken weakness, and as much as she wanted him, she really just wanted to see him sweat first

"Nick, I'm going to do exactly what I know you want me to do."

Nick paused. She didn't know shit. Did she? She couldn't. He hadn't told anyone, he had never spent that long looking at her. Unless he did and he didn't know it. Nick panicked. What was she doing? What could she possibly be planning? She was drunk, there was no way she was clever enough to fool him right now.

Then again, he was pretty drunk too.

"And what is that?" he asked. "What are you planning on doing, Miss Day?"

Jess leaned in to him. Nick felt the heat of her coming off in waves as she leaned in. Every part of her was just an inch from him, but nothing touched, just barely. Nick couldn't hold his heavy breathing in much longer and couldn't bare not looking down her romper. She was exposed and she knew it, she knew exactly what she was doing.

Nick looked back up at her startlingly blue eyes. He could feel her fingering the bottom of his t-shirt.

Jess turned her head to Nick's ear and pressed her lips to his skin - Nick didn't think he could breath at all anymore.

"Well, honestly, I don't know if I can really do _any_thing tonight, Nick," Jess said softly into his ear.

Nick's eyebrows shot together. "What - "

"Because, Nick?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah, Jess?" he said turning to her.

Jess looked up at him drunkenly over her glasses and leaned her face towards his - they were barely inches apart.

"Next time you look down my shirt, Nicholas Miller, you'd better make damn well sure you do something about it," she whispered.

Nick stared at her cautiously.

He had never felt so hot in his entire life.

"Goodnight, Nick," she teased, smiling, and leaned in to press her lips to the skin beneath his ear. "Thanks for chasing off my fears tonight."

Nick could barely speak. "I - "

"Really," she said softly, standing off the couch and smoothing out her clothes, "I don't feel scared at all anymore."

"You -"

Jess grinned at him. "Yes, Nick?"

How had she managed to silence him?

Jess felt exhilarated. She felt sexy and sultry and everything she had wanted to feel with Paul and Russell but couldn't out of nervousness. Nick sat there on the couch staring at her, his mouth gaping open like a fish, while she turned at walked away.

And Nick swore to God, "If you say my name like that one more time Jess, I'm going to make you pay for it."

Did he say that out loud? Fuck.

Jess stopped in her tracks. This was what she wanted. She couldn't take it anymore; she needed it. She needed him.

"Nick," she drawled out, every drunken emotion in her coming out into the sexiest growl she could attempt. She wasn't sure if she got the sex appeal she was going for, but she was absolutely sure of one thing: she had riled up Nick Miller and she had never been more excited.

Nick snapped. He leapt off the couch and stormed toward Jess, wrapping his arms around her waist and slamming her lips against his. He forced her mouth open and he didn't care that she tasted like bitters and cranberry juice, he just wanted her. He wanted everything that this meant and he waned it _now_.

He moaned against her, his hands desperate to find the zipper on her _damn _romper - what the hell was this thing made for anyway, just to confuse him? Jess did the work for him, yanking her sleeves down and shoving the outfit to the floor. Her underwear matched the purple bra he had seen earlier. Did she mean to do that?

She didn't break the kiss. His breath was hot against hers and she couldn't believe this was finally happening, weeks of staring, weeks of waiting for him do something, say something.

Jess tugged Nick's shirt up over his arms and through her own arms over his shoulders. Nick grabbed at her breasts, her ass, anywhere he could think to touch. God, he'd been waiting for this for weeks. All these places on her he'd imagined, all these beautiful bits of her skin that he hadn't seen. He needed her, more of her. He went around and tried to unhook her bra before he found her slipping away from him.

"No! Jess!" he groaned.

He opened his eyes and found her laughing at him, standing in the doorway to her bedroom. "Get in here, Nick."

And for once, he did as he was told.

Nick ran at her and threw her over his shoulder, slamming the door behind him with his foot. Jess let out a girly squeal before being not-so-gently tossed back onto her bed. She let out an enormous laugh and stood back up on the mattress, waiting for him to join her. Nick grinned slyly and grabbed her back down, yanking at her bra straps quite ungracefully.

"I don't think so - get your pants off first, Nick," she ordered huskily.

Nick panted and ripped off his khaki shorts and went back to her bra. God, her skin was incredible, and freeing her breasts was something he'd been longing to do since he first saw her. They were perfect, her pink nipples pointing straight up at him. He licked and teased at them with his tongue and his fingers, hearing her moan above him.

"Nick," she panted. "Nick, your boxers."

Nick removed his boxers quickly. Jess stared down at him and panted further, reaching down to his stiff shaft before wetting her pouty red lips and going down on him.

Nick tried to keep his eyes open and watch what he'd been fantasizing about for months, but he could barely do so, his mouth dropping open in a soft moan. "Yes, Jesus, Jess."

Jess kept at it for a while and then carefully lifted back up to kiss him, keeping her hand firmly on his shaft.

Nick took her hand from him briefly and held it in his own. "Let me, Jess, let me..."

He reached down to her underwear and stroked the pad of his index finger against her. She was so fucking wet.

"Nick, please," she moaned. Nick slid two fingers inside of her, hoping to give her what she needed.

"No, Nick - _please,_" she stared up at him with her enormous blue eyes. Did she really want this.

"Are you sure?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm fucking _sure_, Nick, go get a condom."

Nick couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. He pinned her against the bed and he knew she loved it as he started to enter her - he held himself just above her opening, just watching her squirm with longing and desire and heat.

"_Nick!_" she screamed. Nick entered her without any care for being gentle, without any worry. The two of them moaned simultaneously and instantaneously, crying out with pleasure and further desire.

He tried to keep it slow, but there was no way he could handle it. Jess was smacking his ass behind him and screaming out his name and there was no way he could possibly keep it much longer. Thank god she came first, her spasms and yells echoing all around him. She grew tight around him and he could barely believe it was actually happening. "Nick," she moaned. He couldn't help but come for her then.

The two collapsed on the bed. Nick buried his head in the crook between her neck and her shoulder and panted. She stared at the man that had satisfied her so and couldn't help but smile in unparalleled pleasure.

"Nick," she said softly. Nick looked back up at her, still breathless.

Jess leaned in and kissed him softly. Did this actually happen?

Nick cleaned himself up and crawled back into Jess's bed. He was only slightly surprised she was still awake, waiting for him.

"Nick...it's 5 in the morning."

Nick laughed. "That's okay. Do you still feel scared, Jess?"

Jess laughed. "Not for a second."

* * *

**Definitely more M rated than my last one! Please tell me what you think. Thanks!**


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